Since Mr Duncan had been ordained to the parish of Ruthwell his duties
had by no means been confined to the ordinary routine of a minister of
the Kirk. No subject had occupied so much of his thoughts as the
condition of the working classes. Everything relating to their social
condition was the subject of his most eager inquiry and interest. His
heart throbbed with pity and sympathy for the poor in their troubles.
But the great object of his life was to inculcate those habits of
dignity, energy, and independence that he thought necessary to their
well-being. In common with that great economist, Dr Chalmers, he
rebelled against the introduction of the poor laws as having a tendency
to degrade and pauperise the people, and as leading the poorer classes
to rely unduly upon a legal provision. The time of which we are writing
was one when the introduction of the poor laws was impending in
Scotland. Voluntary contributions no longer met the needs of the poor in
the large towns, and the country was eagerly discussing the question.
Without going into any minute discussion on the poor laws in England and
Scotland it may be as well to point out the main difference between the
two countries. The habits of the Scottish people were very different
from these prevailing in the sister country. The poorer classes in
England, even the able-bodied, believed they had the right to expect
legal relief, while in Scotland even the halt, the lame, and the blind
had no notion of claiming any assistance as a right. If they could not
support themselves they relied on their relations, or it was to the
church door collections or to voluntary help they turned in their hour
of need. Recourse to this last expedient was, according to a sentiment
fixed in the Scottish character, held to be disgraceful to their
kinsfolk, who therefore made special efforts to prevent it. It was
always with great reluctance that they fell back on the "parish box."

The funds provided for the poor were collected at the churchy door on
Sundays, and no family would pass by " the plate " without putting in
their offering, from the sixpences of the grown-up people to the coppers
of the little ones. It was the habit of the country to give in this way,
and " the plate " was a national institution. This collection was,
according to law, at the disposal of the Kirk Session, that is the
minister, the elders, and certain persons chosen from the congregation,
who distributed these funds for the benefit of the poor and disabled. In
many parishes this was the only support given to the poor, and if this
means of helping them proved insufficient, money was contributed by the
landowners and others in addition, but it was a voluntary and not a
compulsory assessment. This system prevailed extensively north of the
Tweed down to the passing of the Amendment Act in 1845. The parish of
Ruthwell contained a population of 1100 people, and the only funds
provided for the poor amounted to, on an average, £25 annually. A sum
like this, to our modern ideas, appears ridiculously inadequate, yet
with other trifling additions it allayed the serious cases of want. Much
hardship must have been endured, and it is greatly to the credit of the
parish that such a spirit of independence, industry, and economy
prevailed. Only a few years later the increase of pauperism in England
reached serious dimensions. Begun in Elizabeth's reign, the parochial
relief system had worked fairly well—until the beginning of the great
French War. It was then that higher prices and lower wages led to the
beginning of the allowance system, which meant that a man's legitimate
earnings were supplemented by a parish dole. This burden thrown on the
rates made them increase by leaps and bounds, and whole villages were
pauperised. In one English parish alone the rates had risen in thirty
years from £18 to £367, and rather more than one in three of the
inhabitants were paupers. There are some striking figures in Hanna's
Life of Br Chalmers about two parishes in Scotland, one in
Roxburghshire, and the other his own parish of Kilmany. He says : " I
spent some months in a parish in Roxburghshire before I came to Kilmany.
The poor rates had been introduced there from England and I saw as much
poverty and more depravity of character than I hope I shall ever witness
in these northern climes. The same population was supported at about six
times a greater rate than it is in this neighbourhood." Still more
remarkable are some further figures showing the difference between the
poor in an English village and Kilmany. "In return for his statistics as
to Kilmany, Mr M. informed him (Dr Chalmers) of the parish of
Kingbrampton, in Somersetshire, that its population was just four above
that of Kilmany, that, like Kilmany, it contained a purely rural
population, but that its poor rates, instead of ranging between £20 and
£30, had then amounted to £1260 per annum." It is to Scotland's honour
that so many of her great men rebelled against the innovation becoming
general, and that it was acknowledged as law "that an assessment need
not, and ought not, to be introduced in any parish in which the poor can
be maintained without it."

As early as 1796 there had been a Friendly
Society in the parish of Ruthwell. From want of management and
encouragement and perhaps most of all from want of money it had fallen
into low water, and the people had lost confidence and interest in it to
a great extent. Believing in the whole system of Friendly Societies, Mr
Duncan very quickly set to work to put it on a sound footing, and in a
short time the members numbered three hundred. Under the title of the
Scotch Cheap Repository he published a series of pamphlets for the
working classes. His object was to try to sow broadcast among them a
literature which would specially appeal to them, and which would
encourage thrift and industry, promote sound views on leading questions,
and make them realise the importance of bringing up their children well
and educating them. This lover of the poor deprecated any idea that
education could do harm to the people and unfit them for their humble
sphere ; on the contrary, he believed that it would be the means of
exalting and ennobling whatever work they had to do. These compositions,
were, from the first, a great success, and the chief among them, The
Cottage Fireside, went into several editions. He launched into various
contributions for the Christian Instructor and for the Edinburgh
Encyclopedia, which was then being brought out by Mr Brewster.

Finding that his opinions were well received, his thoughts now turned
towards a greater literary undertaking still. At that time Dumfries was
only represented by one newspaper, The Weekly Journal, a paper that had
very little weight and was quite inadequate to deal with the great
questions of the day. He perceived the importance during those stirring
times of having an organ of public opinion wliich would possess real
influence and be a medium for giving to the people information regarding
the progress of those great events taking place on the continent, and
which would at the same time secure more publicity and attention to the
crowd of schemes for improving their condition that presented themselves
to his ever active and versatile mind. His brother at Liverpool
gallantly came forward with money, and the result was the publication of
the Dumfries and, Galloway Courier on the 6th of December 1809, the year
of Sir John Moore's victory at Corunna and Wellington's defeat of the
French at Taiavera. Napoleon was then at the zenith of his power after
his marriage with Marie Louise. The Empire seemed at its height; Prussia
was humbled to the dust; Napoleon was trying to achieve the commercial
ruin of our country. Towards the end of 1810 Consols sank to 65. The
Walcheren expedition had caused a great loss to the nation of men and
money. The mental condition of the King was causing great anxiety.
Ministers were at loggerheads, and altogether the country appeared to be
on the edge of a precipice. Born in those stirring times, during that
rush of events that preceded the peace of 1815, the Courier was launched
into life on troubled waters. To take up the duties and responsibilities
of editing a paper under these conditions was an almost superhuman task,
but his method, his diligence and his knowledge enabled him to carry
through an undertaking which at first seemed full of difficulties. It
meant constant journeys to and from Dumfries, but it was his capacity
for almost endless work that kept him going; the management of a small
retired parish did not satisfy his eager spirit—the spirit that now made
him enter this new field heart and soul and mind aglow with a fervent
desire to do good. Here was an opportunity— his opportunity—for putting
forth and aiding the views he had at heart for the welfare of men—of
communities—of nations ; for, disguised under the black coat of his
profession was the heart of a statesman. The Courier became the channel
of all the most advanced thought of the day.

The leading articles were vigorous and original, and he encouraged
talent to come out into the open, warmed into life by his friendly
attitude. Some of Carlyle's earliest efforts appeared here.; poetry had
a place; science, art, and literature were well represented. The
Evangelical principles of the more advanced section of the Scotch Church
were rapidly coming to the front, led by the great Chalmers. These
opinions were given a high place, and were warmly supported. It can be
imagined the delight and pleasure this intellectual stimulus must have
been to him, but alas, after some years of hard work, the editorship of
such an undertaking as the Courier became, with his manifold other
duties, too much for him. His office was too far from his parish; the
constant journeying to and fro was wearing in no small degree and took
up too much of his time, or, to use his" own words, " interfered with
duties of a more sacred nature." There were no trains in those days to
take you swiftly to your destination. Imagine those long drives in an
open gig in stormy weather, the stress of work he laboured under at his
office, and at his parish work on his return, for he was too honourable
a man to neglect his home and parish duties for any outside interest.
Often, after a day of great strain and fatigue, he would find on
returning home, cold and tired, that he had to go to a distant part of
the village to minister to some sick or dying parishioner. He resolved,
therefore, to try and get some suitable editor to take the entire
management. It was a great wrench to be obliged to give up the active
part he had hitherto taken, and I must quote his own words in writing to
a friend at Edinburgh, who was trying to find a suitable editor: "I
regard the newspaper as a great moral engine, of such power over the
feelings and sentiments of the community that the conductor of it incurs
no small responsibility; and I have very deeply to regret that my
absence from Dumfries has prevented me from fulfilling my duty in this
respect to my own mind. The editor, whoever he may be, must be a man who
has the interests of religion as well as of civil liberty and morals at
heart, and who is judicious enough to know how far he may go without
creating disgust where it would be desirable to conciliate. This
requires a delicate hand, and if a person of this kind could be procured
possessing the splendid talents of------it is not a trifle that would
part us." The Courier passed into able hands in 1817. Mr M'Diarmid
became the editor, and lived for many years to continue the success of
the paper. It has passed from one editor to another—interesting,
well-edited and independent, it occupies a high position in the Press of
to-day, and has had the singular vitality to reach its 100th birthday
and to be as full of youthful vigour as it was in the days of Mr
Duncan's proprietorship.

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